DOCSLIB.ORG

A Critical Analysis of Masquerading Strategies in the Artworks of Contemporary South African Visual A

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Critical Analysis of Masquerading Strategies in the Artworks of Contemporary South African Visual A POSTCOLONIAL MASQUERADING: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MASQUERADING STRATEGIES IN THE ARTWORKS OF CONTEMPORARY SOUTH AFRICAN VISUAL ARTISTS ANTON KANNEMEYER, TRACEY ROSE, MARY SIBANDE, SENZENI MARASELA AND NANDIPHA MNTAMBO SHARLENE KHAN Goldsmiths, University of London PhD in Art 2014 DECLARATION I declare and undertake that all material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any other person(s). I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present for examination. Signed: …………………………… Date: ……………………………… 2 DEDICATION For Gule, Asfour and myself 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Commonwealth Scholarship Commission and Canon Collins Trust for the Commonwealth scholarship that allowed me three years of uninterrupted study time. Sandy Balfour, you’re an amazing person and part of the wonderful memories we have of London. My sincere thanks for copy-editing this thesis. Thanks to the National Arts Council of South Africa for funding towards this PhD. Thank you to my supervisor, Andrea Phillips, for challenging my thoughts, for encouraging me, and efficiently dealing with all scholarship requirements. My partner Fouad Asfour – editor, uncredited camera-man, researcher, chef, counsellor, comedian. My sojourn to London was made all the better for having him share it with me. Thank you to artists Ayana Vellisia Jackson, Mary Sibande, Senzeni Marasela, Nandipha Mntambo and Tracey Rose for giving me time out of their hectic schedules in different parts of the world and answering my questions generously. I am grateful to the written contributors of my artist's catalogue: Fouad for layout of the catalogue as well, Peace Kiguwa (who directed me to articles on Critical Whiteness Studies), Nicola Lauré al-Samarai, Yvette Greslé and, especially Betty Govinden, the woman who introduced me to black feminism, and still engages and challenges my thoughts around it. Khwezi Gule, my friend, who entertained many long discussions about these issues for many years prior to this degree. I salute his courage in speaking out about racially problematic representations when it would have been far more beneficial for him not to. Respect. Joo Yeon Park, fellow student and friend throughout these three years. She helped me navigate Goldsmiths when I was a fish-out-of-water and then still stuck with me when I chose to remain one. To call such a talented artist my friend is also an honour. Dina Ligaga, beloved friend, who directed me to Hutcheon’s work on parody and then read a draft of this thesis despite her own hectic life. Grace Musila, a sister in struggle and intellectual pursuits, who always lives up to her name. Brima van Niekerk, Dee Marco and Andre van Niekerk for being awesome friends and 4 reading drafts of this thesis at critical points. Special thanks to Seun Olatoye for her friendship, laughter, and proofreading of my work for my upgrade. My radical feminist friend, Akanksha Mehta, for returning books for me and allowing me to hijack her to watch my videos. Sabitha TP who gave me probably the most helpful crit of my practical work early on in this PhD, which allowed me insight into my own work when I was in desperate need of it. I would also like to thank Katty, Dyi, Chinedu, Sarah, Terese and Yvette for their discussions on my work and for sharing their own experiences with me. Onthatile Modise, Lebohang Kganye, Motlabana Monnakgotla, Jerry Gaegane and Nelmarie du Preez for their time and laughter shooting No Place. Nella also assisted me with much of my video editing initially and helped me get started on doing my own. She also graciously proofread my work for the upgrade. Sara Ahmed whose scholarship on 'being the problem' and 'the killjoy' made a huge difference to me psychically and emotionally. Her words were balm to my soul and I want to thank her for the courage of her scholarship. She and John Cussans' input at my upgrade were invaluable. Denis-Constant Martin, a generous intellectual, who sent me a copy of his book on the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival when I couldn’t obtain one. The wonderful Katarina Pierre, Director of the Bildmuseet, who allowed me full access to the retrospective exhibition of Tracey Rose in 2011. Miss PP gave us a place to stay in mid-2012 when we in a state of unhomeliness – it was without doubt the most generous offer that anyone has ever made to us. Goldsmiths library staff that was always extremely helpful in every regard. A nod to the Goldsmiths photography lab and woodwork workshop (Mic) who gave much needed technical assistance and advice. Goodenough College, my home for two years in central London – every minute was special. A special thanks to Caroline Persaud and Mandy Backhouse for all their help in assisting us with our living arrangements and not forcing us to move at critical junctures during this PhD process. 5 Last, but not least, my family who have never understood what I do but have never allowed this to stop them from giving me unconditional support and love. My strength, my voice and my ability to see things in a different way come from my parents. To my God and my saviour Jesus Christ, the beginning and end of my strength and my wisdom, I give praise, honour, glory and eternal thanks for all the people you have put in my path and the strength to complete this dream. 6 ABSTRACT This thesis analyses the masquerading strategies employed in the artworks of contemporary South African visual artists Anton Kannemeyer, Tracey Rose, Senzeni Marasela, Mary Sibande and Nandipha Mntambo. Masquerading, in this context, refers to the donning of costumes, make-up and the use of props, in staging one’s own body before the camera lens. This study examines contemporary debates in South Africa around such visual art masquerading performances which have questioned notions of identity, autobiography and memory. The first chapter plots the reactivation of blackface masquerades in artwork by young White South African artists, and examines the mechanisms of parodic humour and joke-work in accessing inhibited pleasure through racial stereotypes. The second chapter explores psychoanalytic (Western, black and African), feminist and postcolonial theories on masquerading, and looks at the concepts of mimicry, masking, repetition, and violence as markers of this terrain. The works of Frantz Fanon and Homi K. Bhabha are used to explore racial power relations, but also the possibilities of masquerading as subversive of authorised knowledge in postcolonial contexts. Bhabha’s ideas of mimicry-as-mockery, hybridity and ambivalence, as well as black feminist ideas of creative theorisation, are used to frame the masquerading strategies of the four South African women-of-colour artists under discussion in the third chapter, which demonstrates how Rose, Marasela, Sibande and Mntambo engage masquerade as an analytic tool to centralise women-of-colour narratives and personal politicisation as starting points of theorisation. This research attempts to evidence the concept of ‘postcolonial masquerading’ as an important critical aesthetic tool in black feminist and decolonialising discourses in postcolonial societies. My own practical video engagements employ postcolonial masquerading to interrogate my identity as a South African Indian woman visual artist, actively exploring strategies of mimicry, masking, repetition and ambivalence as tools to voice my subjective position and history framed by apartheid, post-apartheid and postcoloniality. 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration ...............................................................................................................................2 Dedication ................................................................................................................................3 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................4 Abstract ....................................................................................................................................7 Table of Contents .....................................................................................................................8 List of Illustrations .................................................................................................................. 10 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 18 Visual Arts Masquerading in South Africa .................................................................................. 21 Identity in Post-apartheid South Africa ...................................................................................... 23 Post-colonial Spaces and Decolonial Aesthesis .......................................................................... 27 Postcolonial Masquerading as a Creative Critical Analytic Tool ................................................ 30 Chapter One: Touching and Fondling the Black Body – the Contemporary Significance of South African Visual Artist Anton Kannemeyer’s Blackface Sign ....................................................... 34 The Development of the US Blackface Sign ............................................................................... 37 Deurmekaar – Blackface in the Cape Town Minstrel Festival .................................................... 41 The Reactivation of Blackface in South African
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Maat Grada Kilomba X Ines Grosso 2017.Pdf
    SECRETS TO TELL GRADA KILOMBA ÍNDICE / CONTENTS TEXTOS / TEXTS Alfredo Jaar ( PT ) 9 ( EN ) 15 Inês Grosso Quiet as it’s kept (or not) ( PT ) 20 ( EN ) 33 Theresa Sigmund e / and Grada Kilomba Living in a space of timelessness ( PT ) 88 ( EN ) 94 OBRAS / WORKS The Desire Project 44 Plantation Memories 100 Table of Goods 108 Quiet as it’s kept (or not) INÊS GROSSO ( PT ) Receia-se que, se o sujeito colonial falar, o colonizador terá de ouvir. Ela/ele será forçado/a a um confronto desconfortável com «Outras» verdades. Verdades que foram negadas e mantidas no silêncio, como segredos. Gosto muito da frase inglesa «quiet as it’s kept». É uma expressão das comunidades da diáspora africana que anuncia que alguém está prestes a revelar algo que se presume ser segredo. Segredos como a escravatura. Segredos como o colonialismo. Segredos como o racismo.1 Grada Kilomba é uma escritora, uma teórica e uma artista interdisciplinar com um percurso ativo na cena artística berlinense, a cidade onde vive e trabalha. Nascida em Lisboa, as suas raízes estendem-se a São Tomé e Príncipe e a Angola. A sua obra aborda questões em torno dos temas da política de género e de raça e das ideias de trauma e memória, seja no âmbito das problemáticas atuais sobre o colonialismo e o pós-colonialismo no início do século XXI, seja para investigar as relações ambíguas entre memória e esquecimento, o imaginário coletivo e a identidade africana e das suas diásporas. Evocando as tradições orais africanas e o seu poder de perpetuação da palavra, a obra da artista 21 dá voz a narrativas silenciadas com o intuito de reescrever e recontar uma história que foi negada ou omitida.
    [Show full text]
  • NEW STATESMAN | 26 JULY – 8 AUGUST 2013 2013+30Photo Essay:NS 25/07/2013 11:30 Page 45
    2013+30photo essay:NS 25/07/2013 11:30 Page 44 STEVENSON GALLERY/YOSSI MILO GALLERY Pieter Hugo (above) photographs and chose to focus on the close to the mines. Hugo was attracted to Johannesburg, Gauteng Province Witwatersrand, the gold mining region that the notion that Main Reef Road is a modern surrounds Johannesburg. He meandered equivalent of the Roman Via Appia. “All The South African Pieter Hugo was along the city’s Main Reef Road, which South Africa’s wealth was generated along commissioned to take landscape connects the towns that have sprung up this road,” he says. 44 | NEW STATESMAN | 26 JULY – 8 AUGUST 2013 2013+30photo essay:NS 25/07/2013 11:30 Page 45 PHOTO ESSAY Transition Contested landscapes in South Africa Photography by Philippe Chancel, Raphaël Dallaporta, Pieter Hugo, Santu Mofokeng, Zanele Muholi, Jo Ractliffe, Thabiso Sekgala and Alain Willaume In Southern Africa, landscape photography is invariably political. The camera was an im- portant tool to Europeans in the appropria- tion of land. In 1858, the Scottish missionary David Livingstone asked his brother Charles to photograph an expedition to the Victoria Falls (which he had “discovered” in 1855). He wanted “to extend the knowledge already attained of the geography and mineral and agricultural resources” there, in the hope that “raw material” might be “exported to England in return for British manufactures”. When those that followed came to depict the land for its own sake, they relied on a vi- sual aesthetic adopted from French art. They did not record the landscape: they “invented” it. Throughout the 19th and early 20th cen- turies, white salon photographers developed an iconography that aimed to reveal a virgin territory whose mountains, plains and tribal inhabitants illustrated the grandeur of the imperial project.
    [Show full text]
  • The Dialectic of Freedom 1St Edition Pdf Free Download
    THE DIALECTIC OF FREEDOM 1ST EDITION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Maxine Greene | 9780807728970 | | | | | The Dialectic of Freedom 1st edition PDF Book She examines the ways in which the disenfranchised have historically understood and acted on their freedom—or lack of it—in dealing with perceived and real obstacles to expression and empowerment. It offers readers a critical opportunity to reflect on our continuing ideological struggles by examining popular books that have made a difference in educational discourse. Professors: Request an Exam Copy. Major works. Max Horkheimer Theodor W. The latter democratically makes everyone equally into listeners, in order to expose them in authoritarian fashion to the same programs put out by different stations. American Paradox American Quest. Instead the conscious decision of the managing directors executes as results which are more obligatory than the blindest price-mechanisms the old law of value and hence the destiny of capitalism. Forgot your password? There have been two English translations: the first by John Cumming New York: Herder and Herder , ; and a more recent translation, based on the definitive text from Horkheimer's collected works, by Edmund Jephcott Stanford: Stanford University Press, Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser. Peter Lang. The truth that they are nothing but business is used as an ideology to legitimize the trash they intentionally produce. Archetypal literary criticism New historicism Technocriticism. The author concludes with suggestions for approaches to teaching and learning that can provoke both educators and students to take initiatives, to transcend limits, and to pursue freedom—not in solitude, but in reciprocity with others, not in privacy, but in a public space.
    [Show full text]
  • 10753820.Pdf
    https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ Theses Digitisation: https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/research/enlighten/theses/digitisation/ This is a digitised version of the original print thesis. Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Outside of a Logocentric Discourse? The Case of (Post)modern Czech “Women’s” Writing Jan Matonoha Degree: MPhil Form of Study: Research Department of Slavonic Studies School of Modern Languages and Cultures University of Glasgow May 2007 © Jan Matonoha, 2007 ProQuest Number: 10753820 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10753820 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC.
    [Show full text]
  • 'There's No Such Thing As Gay': Black Lesbians And
    ‘THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS GAY’: BLACK LESBIANS AND NATIONHOOD IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA Claire Stephanie Westman Dissertation presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University Supervisor: Prof. H.L. du Toit December 2019 Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za DECLARATION By submitting this thesis/dissertation electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the sole author thereof (save to the extent explicitly otherwise stated), that reproduction and publication thereof by Stellenbosch University will not infringe any third party rights and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification. CS Westman Date: December 2019 Copyright © 2019 Stellenbosch University All rights reserved Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za ABSTRACT Within post-apartheid South Africa, matters around lesbo-phobic rape, or what is more commonly referred to as corrective rape, have come into sharp focus. Lesbo-phobic rape may be understood as the rape of lesbian women with the intention of ‘curing’ them of their homosexuality or making them into ‘real’ women. The progressive, yet contentious, South African Constitution expressly protects the rights of everybody to freely express their sexual identity, when it forbids discrimination on the basis of sex, gender or sexual orientation. The prevalence of lesbo-phobic rape appears to go against the developing nation’s values of inclusion and equality. However, when examining lesbo-phobic rape through a critical lens, as this study does, it becomes clear that lesbo-phobic rape is at once both an affront to the nation’s values, while also playing an integral role in shaping the nation’s identity.
    [Show full text]
  • Generic Affinities, Posthumanisms and Science-Fictional Imaginings
    GENERIC AFFINITIES, POSTHUMANISMS, SCIENCE-FICTIONAL IMAGININGS SPECULATIVE MATTER: GENERIC AFFINITIES, POSTHUMANISMS AND SCIENCE-FICTIONAL IMAGININGS By LAURA M. WIEBE, B.A., M.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy McMaster University © Copyright by Laura Wiebe, October 2012 McMaster University DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (2012) Hamilton, Ontario (English and Cultural Studies) TITLE: Speculative Matter: Generic Affinities, Posthumanisms and Science-Fictional Imaginings AUTHOR: Laura Wiebe, B.A. (University of Waterloo), M.A. (Brock University) SUPERVISOR: Professor Anne Savage NUMBER OF PAGES: vi, 277 ii ABSTRACT Amidst the technoscientific ubiquity of the contemporary West (or global North), science fiction has come to seem the most current of genres, the narrative form best equipped to comment on and work through the social, political and ethical quandaries of rapid technoscientific development and the ways in which this development challenges conventional understandings of human identity and rationality. By this framing, the continuing popularity of stories about paranormal phenomena and supernatural entities – on mainstream television, or in print genres such as urban fantasy and paranormal romance – may seem to be a regressive reaction against the authority of and experience of living in technoscientific modernity. Nevertheless, the boundaries of science fiction, as with any genre, are relational rather than fixed, and critical engagements with Western/Northern technoscientific knowledge and practice and modern human identity and being may be found not just in science fiction “proper,” or in the scholarly field of science and technology studies, but also in the related genres of fantasy and paranormal romance.
    [Show full text]
  • An Analysis of the Media Portrayals of Single Black Women Breonna Tindall
    Ursidae: The Undergraduate Research Journal at the University of Northern Colorado Volume 2 Article 9 Number 2 McNair Special Issue January 2012 Where is the Black Barbie? An Analysis of the Media Portrayals of Single Black Women BreOnna Tindall Follow this and additional works at: http://digscholarship.unco.edu/urj Part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Tindall, BreOnna (2012) "Where is the Black Barbie? An Analysis of the Media Portrayals of Single Black Women," Ursidae: The Undergraduate Research Journal at the University of Northern Colorado: Vol. 2 : No. 2 , Article 9. Available at: http://digscholarship.unco.edu/urj/vol2/iss2/9 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship & Creative Works @ Digital UNC. It has been accepted for inclusion in Ursidae: The ndeU rgraduate Research Journal at the University of Northern Colorado by an authorized editor of Scholarship & Creative Works @ Digital UNC. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Tindall: Where is the Black Barbie? An Analysis of the Media Portrayals of Single Black WomenWhere is the Black Barbie? Where is the Black Barbie? An Analysis of the Media Portrayals of Single Black Women BreOnna Tindall Mentor: Patricia Jolly, M.A., Anthropology Abstract: This study focuses on the messages that Black women receive about singleness and their ability to maintain a healthy relationship with a Black man from movies that are distributed by mainstream media outlets as well as the implications those messages have on formation of potential relationships. This project analyzes the depictions of Black women in two blockbuster movies and explicates the messages of each character.
    [Show full text]
  • Robyn Sassen Under Covers: South Africa's Apartheid Army
    Under Covers: South Africa’s Apartheid Army – an Incubator for Artists’ Books Robyn Sassen South Africa was the pariah of the contemporary western world because of its legalised and enforced racism, between 1948 and 1994. Apartheid touched the lives of all South Africans, explicitly or implicitly. Oppression of the black majority was accomplished in many ways—through legalism and legislation, indoctrination and education. The South African Defence Force (SADF), which between 1961 and 1993 conducted the forced conscription of young white men, is an odd incubator for artists’ books.1 Yet, it is my argument in this paper, that selected work made by five South African artists, which fits the rubric of artist’s book, developed directly out of the artists’ experiences in the army, or their thoughts surrounding the realities of being forced to subscribe to certain political (and racist) values by virtue of their gender and skin colour. The works I will be examining here are Willem Boshoff’s Bangboek (1977-81), Steven Cohen’s Alice in Pretoria (1988) series and the progression of his work from this point, selected pieces from the collaborative oeuvre of Anton Kannemeyer and Conrad Botes, who created Bitterkomix, and Paul Emmanuel’s The Lost Men (Grahamstown) (2004). But, what is an artist’s book? Must it be a paged document with a spine, pagination, a foredge and a colophon? Must its content comprise text? Must it be a unique item, collectable by galleries and upheld as precious? David Paton argues that over the years, the artist’s book has shifted in its defining characteristics from the codex as ‘fixed artifact to that of a work whose existence is contingent on the active engagement of the reader’, thus giving the codex a dynamism previously not credited as possible (Paton 2006:16).2 Each of the artists whose work I examine challenges these notions, exploding an understanding of the artist’s book in a manner which reinvents it, while claiming ownership of it.
    [Show full text]
  • On Whiteness As Property and Racial Performance As Political Speech
    PASSING AND TRESPASSING IN THE ACADEMY: ON WHITENESS AS PROPERTY AND RACIAL PERFORMANCE AS POLITICAL SPEECH Charles R. Lawrence IIl* 1. INTRODUCING OUR GRANDMOTHERS Cheryl Harris begins her canonical piece, Whiteness as Property, by in­ troducing her grandmother Alma. Fair skinned with straight hair and aquiline features, Alma "passes" so that she can feed herself and her two daughters. Harris speaks of Alma's daily illegal border crossing into this land reserved for whites. After a day's work, Alma returns home each evening, tired and worn, laying aside her mask and reentering herself.! "No longer immediately identifiable as 'Lula's daughter,' Alma could enter the white world, albeit on a false passport, not merely passing, but trespassing. "2 In this powerful metaphorical narrative of borders and trespass, of masking and unmasking, of leaving home and returning to reenter one­ self, we feel the central truths of Harris's theory. She asserts that white­ ness and property share the premise and conceptual nucleus of a right to exclude,3 that the rhetorical move from slave and free to black and white was central to the construction of race,4 that property rights include intan­ gible interests,s that their existence is a matter of legal definition, that the * Professor of Law, William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii. B.A. 1965, Haverford College; J.D. 1969 Yale Law School. The author thanks the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii at Manoa, the UCLA Law School Critical Race Studies Program and the I, Too, am Harvard Blacktavism Conference 2014 where earlier versions of this paper were presented.
    [Show full text]
  • William Kentridge 11:45-13:45 - Colonial Amnesia I
    BE.BOP 2012. BLACK EUROPE BODY POLITICS EDITED BY ALANNA LOCKWARD AND WALTER MIGNOLO .... BE.BOP 2012 BLACK EUROPE BODY POLITICS May 4-6, 2012 .... ROUNDTABLE SESSIONS Friday, May 4th 10:00-11:00 - SCREENING OF WORKS BY JEANNETE EHLERS, INGRIDMWANGIROBERTHUTTER, TERESA MARÍA DÍAZ NERIO, EMEKA UDEMBA AND TRACEY MOFFATT 11:30-13:30 - BLACK EUROPE AND DECOLONIAL (DIASPORIC) AESTHETICS Alanna Lockward, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin - Walter Mignolo, Duke University - IngridMwangiRobertHutter, Artist. Moderator: Rolando Vázquez, Roosevelt Academy 14:15-16:30 - BLACK EUROPE, CITIZENSHIP AND THE DECOLONIAL OPTION Manuela Boatca, Freie Universität Berlin - Gabriele Dietze, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin - Artwell Cain, Director Ninsee (National Institute for the Study of Dutch Slavery and its Legacy) - Rolando Vázquez, Roosevelt Academy. Moderator: Walter Mignolo 16:45-18:00 - OPEN MIC Moderator: Robbie Shilliam, Queen Mary University, London and Alanna Lockward, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin Saturday, May 5th 09:30-11:30 - SCREENINGS OF WORKS BY JEAN-MARIE TENO, SUMUGAN SIVANESAN AND WILLIAM KENTRIDGE 11:45-13:45 - COLONIAL AMNESIA I. CONNECTING ENSLAVEMENT LEGACIES BEFORE AND AFTER THE TRIANGULAR TRADE IN SCANDINAVIA Simmi Dullay, Independent scholar - Jeannette Ehlers, Artist - Ylva Habel, Södertörn University. Moderator: Alanna Lockward 14:30-16:30 - COLONIAL AMNESIA II. RES NULLIUS, THE BERLIN-CONGO CONFERENCE AND THE HERERO- NAMA GENOCIDE José Manuel Barreto, Goldsmiths College London - Ulrike Hamann, Goethe University Frankfurt. David Olusoga, Author. Moderator: Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Director of Savvy Contem- porary 16:30-18:00 - OPEN MIC Moderator: Michael Küppers-Adebisi, Director of AFROTAK TV cyberNomads and Teresa María Díaz Nerio, Artist Sunday, May 6th 10:30-11:00 - SCREENING OF WORK BY AFROTAKT TV CYBERNOMADS 11:00- 13:00 - BLACKNESS, SISTERHOOD AND CITIZENSHIP IN THE SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE Teresa María Díaz Nerio, Artist - Grada Kilomba, Author - Rozena Maart, University of Kwa-Zulu Natal - Minna Salami, Writer/Blogger.
    [Show full text]
  • 99! Throughout His Many Decades of Struggle and Imprisonment, Nelson
    HUMAN DIGNITY AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN THE POST APARTHEID STATE SPENCER WOLFF* Throughout his many decades of struggle and imprisonment, Nelson Mandela clung to a demand for human dignity for all South Africans. In the wake of his passing, it might seem pertinent to ask what human dignity represents in South Africa today. Many of us would be surprised by the answer. Focusing on three recent controversies, The Citizen 1978 Pty Ltd v McBride,1 Le Roux v Dey2 and Zuma v Goodman Gallery,3 this article analyses how South Africa’s courts and politicians have begun to promote a notion of human dignity that privileges ‘Personality Rights’ — the protection of reputation, honour and privacy — over freedom of expression. If human dignity was invoked under apartheid to demand the right to publicly denounce an oppressive political system, over the last decade South Africa’s jurists have drawn on a line of German constitutional jurisprudence to repurpose the dignity principle to shield public figures from criticism. Even more worrying, this sudden enthusiasm for ‘Personality Rights’ has gone hand in hand with efforts by the government to undermine constitutional protections for an independent press and judiciary. For the moment, however, South Africa’s Constitutional Court (‘SACC’) has yet to embrace the full rigour of ‘Personality’ protections embodied in German law. This article contends that the towering legacy of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (‘TRC’) has restrained the Court. As a body tasked with ‘restor[ing] the human and civil dignity of victims “by granting them an opportunity to relate their own accounts of the violations of which they are the victim”’,4 the TRC articulated an interpretation of human dignity that was speech-empowering instead of speech-restrictive.
    [Show full text]
  • Phi Theta Kappa's Satellite Seminar
    October 2006Online at: http://www.bergen.edu/pages/880.asp Vol. XII Issue 2 Phi Theta Kappa’s Satellite Seminar Series Presents: Gender and Power in Relationships BY: MARIYA GONOR STAFF WRITER For many years, Phi Theta Kappa’s satellite seminars have been a great way to educate the students of Bergen about the important issues of our present time. This year will be no different. Our Alpha Epsilon Phi chapter of Phi Theta Kappa will continue to promote scholarship among our peers. Also, this year students who attend the seminar not only have a chance to learn a lot from the speaker, but they can also express their opinion on the subject mat- PTK President, Mariya Gonor ter. Each seminar is being followed dynamics of power. By exploring The first seminar was by a discussion, which is important power in all the different ways it Q.held on September 26th. because we, as students, have voic- appears, we will be trying to Did you find it successful and es that have to be heard. enhance an intelligent climate what was the part that you liked The first seminar was held on the among all the students. In addition the most? 26th of September in room C-102. Presenter: Dr. Pepper Schwartz to the different topics presented, I definitely consider the The topic of that seminar con- are very important for students of So I heard that this year's this year’s seminars will be held in first seminar to be a suc- cerned power in relationships. Dr. A.
    [Show full text]